Hands-on with the Huawei Ascend D2

Huawei edged into the high-end smartphone space in 2012 with its Ascend D1 series, and it's following up this year with a large-screened, high-resolution successor, the Ascend D2. Powered by a custom 1.4GHz quad-core processor, the Ascend D2. With a 5-inch 1080p screen, the D2 is aimed firmly at current competition from the better-known manufacturers, including HTC's Droid DNA.

The D2's build quality is a substantial step up from earlier Huawei handset. There's glossy plastic around the back, but the trim is constructed of stainless steel, and a video shown at Huawei's Las Vegas press conference today showed the complexities involved in crafting the frame for this device.

The star of the show is the 5-inch display, which runs at 1080p resolution and goes toe-to-toe with the screen of the Droid DNA, which we compared in our hands-on video. Being an early demo unit, it was difficult to judge the handset's overall performance, but we can offer a few thoughts on the software. On top of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the D2 runs Huawei's emotion UI. This brings a curved, MIUI-like appearance to the OS, along with a few quirks like the launcher, which lacks a traditional app drawer.

The Ascend D2 is slated to launch in China and Europe in Q1, and with the hardware inside this device, Huawei's in a strong position. However, it remains to be seen whether the smartphone-buying masses will fall in love with its unconventional Emotion UI.

Check out our hands-on video above for a quick walkthrough, and stick around after the break for even more pictures of the device (including a side-by-side with the Droid DNA.)

I'm kinda baffled how fast the mobile tech is developing.. I mean, it's one year ago since we saw the introduction of 720p screens on very high end (One-X)... but looks like we'll see 1080p screens on mid-range phones (price-wise) in 2013..

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